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[kiryani]

If you're in EU (hopefully you are) add me through RealID too, I'll make a new character on your server, hit level 15 in no time, and we'll queue for dungeons together. Just let me know if you want to tankor dps, I'll go healer or dps depending on what you choose.


Edit: Nice I saw you went with EU indeed, hit me up via PM or just post your character's armory here, and I'll make a character on your server.

I'd be well up for a 3 way (!)

Shout if wanted/needed.

 

[-bakalhau-]

I'd be well up for a 3 way (!)

Shout if wanted/needed.

4-way since he has a friend playing also. I'm sending you the details via PM.

 

[Suairyu]

Yeah, awesome. My friend should be up to level 15 tomorrow evening, after which we'll be ready to roll as a group.

 

[Songbird]

Yeah, awesome. My friend should be up to level 15 tomorrow evening, after which we'll be ready to roll as a group.

I'd like to roll with you too mate, what server might I find you on? I'd need a month's sub first though.

Also I hate to sound condescending but what other MMOs have you played in a tanking role? I had experience in a couple and only had one dungeon finder calamity in all my attempts. In any case it's not fair or fun to feel such pressure in a random group, let alone a video game.

 

[-bakalhau-]

We're on Magtheridon EU, Alliance side. So far we're a Warlock, a Prot/Holy Pala (me), a Prot/Retri Pala (OP), and a Resto Druid (his friend).

This is all cool and stuff, to play with th OP, BUT... I demand more journals from him. That's what's making the thread worth it.

 

[Songbird]

We're on Magtheridon EU, Alliance side. So far we're a Warlock, a Prot/Holy Pala (me), a Prot/Retri Pala (OP), and a Resto Druid (his friend).

This is all cool and stuff, to play with th OP, BUT... I demand more journals from him. That's what's making the thread worth it.

Mmm. Might go mage if I join in, then!

 

[TheYanger]

Experienced tank here, who only picked it up in late vanilla/BC as an alt.
You CAN 'learn' to tank without going into dungeons, especially with a friend, mobs are the same anywhere, theyjust might nto live long enough elsewhere. I remember paladins being a bit of a pain early on because I don't think you get Consecrate until 20 something, which is pretty key to AE threat. Basically, your standard operating procedure is going to be:
1) Assess a pull. Just use your best judgement about mob placements to deduce how much stuff is going to come on a pull, and look at the names to try and figure out what is going to be the most critical to kill first. Typically healer-y sounding names are healers and need to die first, then dps casters, then melee mobs. Not always true, but it's a good rule of thumb for new pulls. Mark a skull on something you want people to focus down. This is universal and if someone pulls aggro on a non-skull its their own fault.

2) pull the mobs! This should be obvious, but I'm guessing you're stuck with avenger's shield and judgement at this point. Judging is probably the right way to pull (I tend to open with taunt later on, but since you lack any real AoE it's probably best to save it), rather than charging in USUALLY pulling back onto you is safer, so you won't aggro extra stuff. Try to use your shield once you're sure it'll hit the most mobs possible, if there are more mobs than the shield can hit, try to slap the others with your other abilities.

3) holding aggro! At this point once everything is on you, your job is simply to keep it on you. You need to be swapping targets fairly frequently, threat plates or a threat meter (omen) will do wonders for you here, you can swap to targets that you're closer to losing aggro on faster, but the real key is to ALWAYS be doing something, don't lose your focus on what abilities to use just because you're focusing on target swapping. Becoming very comfortable with your abilities is important for this. Once you're set on that you can easily play without even paying attention to your hotkeys or anything like that. Try to put MORE threat into the mob people are attacking (the skull). By the time that dies it should be a decent lead on everything else and you can either just follow what the dps is on (by looking at what they're gaining threat on) or mark something else (Conversely, you can mark more mobs pre-pull, X is typically second).

That's pretty much it at low levels. Just make sure righteous fury is always on, and be ready to hit any defensive cooldowns you need to if things get hairy. As a tank you set the pace of the dungeon, so people will look to you and get impatient with you, just stick it out and say you're new. Not everyone is a jerk. I personally pace a dungeon by watching my healer. Between packs target your healer and eyeball their mana, if they're burning 75% of their mana on every group, let them get up to like 80% or so before you pull the next one, fi they seem to be ok on mana, just keep pulling and get used to how much they're using up. Bosses will need a bit more and you usually want to let them fill up beforehand.

A quick glance at wowhead is telling me you'll need to be ~ level 20 before you get hammer of the righteous and a few more levels to get the talents to make consecrate beefy. This is basically just shitty design on Blizz' part in the redoing of the classes with cataclysm, it's going to be HARD to tank on your paladin until you have those abilities, they're your AE bread and butter, but y'know what? It's possible, and if you put in the work you can do it We ALL had to tank like that back in the day - LOTS of active target swapping and frantic button mashing. If someone pulls aggro now and then it's not a huge deal in levelling dungeons.

 

[Suairyu]

I'd like to roll with you too mate, what server might I find you on? I'd need a month's sub first though.

Also I hate to sound condescending but what other MMOs have you played in a tanking role? I had experience in a couple and only had one dungeon finder calamity in all my attempts. In any case it's not fair or fun to feel such pressure in a random group, let alone a video game.

This will make us a group of five, so that'd be great.

As for experience, I've tanked in Phantasy Star Online, but that has its own systems and rhythms; I'm not finding the skills very transferable, though the theory remains much the same. I like being a meat shield.

This is all cool and stuff, to play with th OP, BUT... I demand more journals from him. That's what's making the thread worth it.

Of course. This GAF thread is better than any strategy guide, so I'll keep updating.

Typically healer-y sounding names are healers and need to die first, then dps casters, then melee mobs. Not always true, but it's a good rule of thumb for new pulls. Mark a skull on something you want people to focus down. This is universal and if someone pulls aggro on a non-skull its their own fault.

I guess knowing what a healer-y sounding name is comes with experience.

So setting a skull, is that simply saying out of the group of beasties I have pulled, this is the one I want taking down first? I heard "only attack the enemy the tank is attacking" when being a damage dealer, but they were attacking a few in rotation. Never saw a skull.

 

[Marco1]

I am a level 11 Paladin.
Only started myself but willing to join.

 

[Songbird]

So setting a skull, is that simply saying out of the group of beasties I have pulled, this is the one I want taking down first? I heard "only attack the enemy the tank is attacking" when being a damage dealer, but they were attacking a few in rotation. Never saw a skull.

The skull is a "raid target" and you can set an icon like the skull by targeting an npc then right-clicking its portrait. They appear over the head of the baddie you want dead the most. They're also pretty useful for tracking friendlies you're escorting. I remember the Shattrath tour guide walking straight through walls and disappearing without a skull attached.

PS. Please don't wait for me at all if your want a regular GAF group forming. Fella above has expressed interest and I'm short on subscription money.

 

[NotMyUsername]

I guess knowing what a healer-y sounding name is comes with experience.

Things like "priest" should trigger it naturally. If it sounds like they're going to use magic they're a fairly safe bet. If you are attacking some dude and you notice them getting healed you should keep your peepers looking for someone that looks to be standing back and casting. And yes, the rest is from experience.

So setting a skull, is that simply saying out of the group of beasties I have pulled, this is the one I want taking down first? I heard "only attack the enemy the tank is attacking" when being a damage dealer, but they were attacking a few in rotation. Never saw a skull.

That's what it means, yes. And later more icons will be used to assign stuff but skull is the most basic. But I'm just skimming the thread and guessing here but you probably haven't seen a skull used prior because early on most people don't really worry nearly as much about kill order because they're playing on alts, don't know about marking, or simply just don't care and people attack wildly without abandon.

 

[ch0mp]

That's what it means, yes. And later more icons will be used to assign stuff but skull is the most basic. But I'm just skimming the thread and guessing here but you probably haven't seen a skull used prior because early on most people don't really worry nearly as much about kill order because they're playing on alts, don't know about marking, or simply just don't care and people attack wildly without abandon.

I've levelled a few alts and I pretty much never saw marks before at least 80 normals/heroics.

 

[NotMyUsername]

I've levelled a few alts and I pretty much never saw marks before at least 80 normals/heroics.

Well yeah, that was mainly my point. Most people leveling seem to be playing alts from my experience so nobody worries much about marking. It still happens pre-80 but it's not terribly common. I almost only play as a tank and I'd do it more out of habit than anything else but I'd also start doing it in lower level stuff if someone was causing trouble by attacking the wrong mobs or something.

 

[TheYanger]

As a newbie tank, especially a paladin or bear who both lack early ae threat, definitely get used to marking skulls. You can keybind the raid symbols in the key binding menu as well (may take a minute to find the proper section). I bind all of mine to the number pad for instance, makes it really easy to quickly mark a group. Skull is the big fat numpad 0, easy to switch during a fight if need be. Use whatever keybinds you like though.

And yeah, healer-y sounding names are typical RPG fare: Priest, templar, archon, etc. Usually if something has a mana bar then it's a high priority target (Either a healer or a caster dps).

 

[Audioboxer]

Hi guys, this topic has been really useful for me, started out my first tanking character, warrior, week or two back. Sitting at level 38 just now. Played DPS for years, Hunter/Mage/Paladin, first time trying tanking. Leveling as prot.

Can anyone recommend me a 1h upgrade for my sword though? http://eu.battle.net/wow/en/character/stormrage/aristaéus/simple

Thanks

 

[Flib]

Hi guys, this topic has been really useful for me, started out my first tanking character, warrior, week or two back. Sitting at level 38 just now. Played DPS for years, Hunter/Mage/Paladin, first time trying tanking. Leveling as prot.

Can anyone recommend me a 1h upgrade for my sword though? http://eu.battle.net/wow/en/character/stormrage/aristaéus/simple

Thanks

If you have any 85 characters, get one of the heirloom weapons.

 

[Audioboxer]

If you have any 85 characters, get one of the heirloom weapons.

My 80 is on another server Started fresh on this server to play with a friend.

I just ran my first 5 man tanking at 39, Uldaman was picked. Had to ask for a little guidance since I've only ever done this instance 1~2 times. No wipes and fairly straight forward. I felt I was a little messy though, a lot of spamming of buttons without much structure. Just spent most of the time focusing on keeping agro. Taunt > Rend > Shield Slam > Heroic strike was cycle, with sunder armor as an when. Used Thunder Clap on multiple mobs to spread rend around.

I tried to mark as well with the tips in here about assigning the marks to the numpad (large 0 key, etc).

The first dungeon being out of the way really does calm down some of the nerves of that first tanking experience!

Oh yeah, managed to pickup a Platinum Sword from the Uldaman quests

 

[Audioboxer]

Shameless bump

The question I have for you guys is should I stick with Herbalism/Alchemy, or switch to Mining/Engineering? I've never really done Herb/Alc before so it's nice and new, but engineering always seems so much fun (not done it either). The bonus stamina from mining is good also. However my healing pots/elixers have been quite useful so far!

 

[Ferrio]

Shameless bump

The question I have for you guys is should I stick with Herbalism/Alchemy, or switch to Mining/Engineering? I've never really done Herb/Alc before so it's nice and new, but engineering always seems so much fun (not done it either). The bonus stamina from mining is good also. However my healing pots/elixers have been quite useful so far!

Believe engineering is considered the worst of the professions now due to some of the fail rates of the items. Same time alchemy consists of almost all stuff you can buy from the AH (few bind craftables here and there). Also flask cauldrons have kinda put a big damper on wanting to go Alchemy IMO.

Kinda your choice really.

 

[Sciz]

I felt I was a little messy though, a lot of spamming of buttons without much structure. Just spent most of the time focusing on keeping agro. Taunt > Rend > Shield Slam > Heroic strike was cycle, with sunder armor as an when. Used Thunder Clap on multiple mobs to spread rend around.

Ditch those three points in Incite for now. It's a decent single target threat talent at best, and single target threat isn't at all your concern in low-end dungeons. Heroic Strike in general isn't very strong these days for how much rage it costs, and in aoe situations Cleave (especially glyphed) will wildly outperform it.

I'd recommend something like this at that level.

2/2 BnT will give you more reliable aoe threat, filling out Shield Spec provides more rage, Shield Mastery makes Shield Block something you blow on cooldown for better average damage mitigation and even more rage, Devastate is your primary rage dump when everything else is on cooldown, and Warbringer will completely change the way you play. Hold the Line is kind of a marginal talent that isn't going to do much for you at 8% parry. Gag Order is nice, but there are better places for the points right now.

 

[Audioboxer]

Believe engineering is considered the worst of the professions now due to some of the fail rates of the items. Same time alchemy consists of almost all stuff you can buy from the AH (few bind craftables here and there). Also flask cauldrons have kinda put a big damper on wanting to go Alchemy IMO.

Kinda your choice really.

Thanks, didn't know such things. Mining/JC might be worth looking into. Part of me is just interested in some of the crazy things engineers can make, although how much actual use in dungeons/raids those things are is another question! I guess as a tank though, I know if I can learn my trade well my professions shouldn't hinder me much, where as with other classes they might be more important to gain spots?

Ditch those three points in Incite for now. It's a decent single target threat talent at best, and single target threat isn't at all your concern in low-end dungeons. Heroic Strike in general isn't very strong these days for how much rage it costs, and in aoe situations Cleave (especially glyphed) will wildly outperform it.

I'd recommend something like this at that level.

2/2 BnT will give you more reliable aoe threat, filling out Shield Spec provides more rage, Shield Mastery makes Shield Block something you blow on cooldown for better average damage mitigation and even more rage, Devastate is your primary rage dump when everything else is on cooldown, and Warbringer will completely change the way you play. Hold the Line is kind of a marginal talent that isn't going to do much for you at 8% parry. Gag Order is nice, but there are better places for the points right now.

Interesting! I shall probably respec. Do you have any tips for talents going forward from that build? Thanks.

I'm still doing questing, in fact, mostly quests, with an instance here and there.

 

[TheYanger]

Profession wise it's simply a matter of what you want. If you're not going for any kind of super minmaxxing you're fine, anything but skinning and herbalism will serve a tank fairly equally well. Engineering is totally fine as a profession still, even for a tank (and for some classes is the best prof still).

 

[Sciz]

Interesting! I shall probably respec. Do you have any tips for talents going forward from that build? Thanks.

I'm still doing questing, in fact, mostly quests, with an instance here and there.

Of what's left in the tree, you really want Improved Revenge, Shockwave, and somewhere along the way grab Last Stand. Heavy Repercussions and Sword and Board are both solid single target threat talents. Impending Victory is pretty weak. Vigilance and Safeguard have their uses, but primarily in raiding environments. Thunderstruck is kind of a marginal increase to aoe threat, but some people swear by it. And Gag Order and Hold the Line are both worth going back for at some point.

At your current point I'd pick up Improved Revenge first, but beyond that there are a lot of options and not many wrong answers.

Field Dressing is a requirement outside of prot, but again, beyond that there are a lot of decent options that mostly come down to playstyle.

 

[Suairyu]

Just a heads up that my friend, while she will almost definitely reach level 15/16 tonight, probably won't reach it until it's too late to take a stab at a dungeon run, so tomorrow night is more likely for doing our first grouping.

If you want to create a character to join us (and are prepared to be patient as we both learn how to play our respective roles and read the quest flavour text we've never seen before) we're on the EU Magtheridon realm. Just PM me your realID and we can set about arranging an exact time.

I also have a mumble server of my own, so we can have some voice chat that doesn't eat through bandwidth like a net-pig.

 

[-bakalhau-]

Today there's maintenance at 4AM, just a heads up to your friend. About doing dungeons, you can run them as many times as you want, in fact it's probable that you will run various 2-3 times. I'll be on for either doing dungeons or questing together. I'll follow your rythm if you wanna group for questing.

 

[Sarcasm]

Ditch those three points in Incite for now. It's a decent single target threat talent at best, and single target threat isn't at all your concern in low-end dungeons. Heroic Strike in general isn't very strong these days for how much rage it costs, and in aoe situations Cleave (especially glyphed) will wildly outperform it.

I'd recommend something like this at that level.

2/2 BnT will give you more reliable aoe threat, filling out Shield Spec provides more rage, Shield Mastery makes Shield Block something you blow on cooldown for better average damage mitigation and even more rage, Devastate is your primary rage dump when everything else is on cooldown, and Warbringer will completely change the way you play. Hold the Line is kind of a marginal talent that isn't going to do much for you at 8% parry. Gag Order is nice, but there are better places for the points right now.

I love 2/2 BnT so much.

 

[Kintaco]

Very nice thread, brings back memories of my first days with WoW. It almost wants to make me return, almost...

 

[mik83kuu]

This thread and the whole story about questin in Not-Africa made me want to return. Duck you all for destroying my life!

 

[Sarcasm]

This thread and the whole story about questin in Not-Africa made me want to return. Duck you all for destroying my life!

NA or EU?

 

[mik83kuu]

NA or EU?

EU

 

[Sarcasm]

Why all you EU peeps.



(sad face)

 

[Suairyu]

This thread and the whole story about questin in Not-Africa made me want to return. Duck you all for destroying my life!

You won't be able to resist if I ever make it to Northrend, so just come now anyway.

EU

Now now now now now!

 

[-bakalhau-]

You won't be able to resist if I ever make it to Northrend, so just come now anyway.

EXACTLY my thoughts. Your mind = blown when you set foot into Howling Fjord for the first time.

 

[kiryani]

Been mega AFK all day + doing some arena's with my shammy when not.

Hoping to level a character sometime tonight. But can't promise a thing!

 

[Ferrio]

The wrathgate stuff is still out of the game right? Coolest thing in game.. and they take it out.

 

[TheYanger]

The wrathgate stuff is still out of the game right? Coolest thing in game.. and they take it out.

The quest chain ends prior to the battle for undercity, the actual WRATHGATE parts are still there, just not the old world steps immediately after.

 

[-bakalhau-]

Been mega AFK all day + doing some arena's with my shammy when not.

Hoping to level a character sometime tonight. But can't promise a thing!

I've been AFK all day. I've noticed you switching characters all day long. That was my favorie part of 'playing WoW' today

 

[kiryani]

I've been AFK all day. I've noticed you switching characters all day long. That was my favorie part of 'playing WoW' today

Yeah I spend a lot of time on my bank alt

 

[Audioboxer]

Oooft, my 3rd dungeon to tank in was Dire Maul, pretty easy, then up next I got Scholomance.

I've never been in either of them before! I've played WoW for about 3 years on and off as well lol.

Scholo was quite a challenge and 2 wipes were arguably my fault, another not so much. Group all stayed to the end though, helped me a bit, and I got a load of good gear. Just shy of level 42 now! Also, Scholo is fairly big for an early dungeon!

The wipes really were just inexperience with the dungeon itself, I fared fine in actual battle.

 

[-bakalhau-]

Some classic instances are bigger than raids. Blackrock is specially huge. I've heard back then, to clear it 100%, you needed 4 hours.

 

[Kalnos]

Also, Scholo is fairly big for an early dungeon!

Scholo used to be a higher-end level 60 dungeon and ages ago it used to be done by 10 man groups.

 

[Ferrio]

Scholo used to be a higher-end level 60 dungeon and ages ago it used to be done by 10 man groups.

Hell I remember running strat in a 40 man.

Both were hard as nails at release. Scholo barely anyone ran cause it was hard, some of the mobs were way overpowered.

 

[Kalnos]

Hell I remember running strat in a 40 man.

Both were hard as nails at release. Scholo barely anyone ran cause it was hard, some of the mobs were way overpowered.

Yeh. You actually had to learn your class to run the dungeon, imagine that.

 

[TheYanger]

It was interesting because both were totally doable as 5 man instances (hard and long of course still, later nerfs were welcome) but the gap between the norm and the theoretically possible in groups was MUCH larger back then. Even good players were probably as bad or worse than your average pugger is now. Tanking was a mysterious function that nobody really understood, making aggro awful so you'd bring more tanks, nobody knew how to dps so you needed like 2-3 times as many to handle things in time, healers would oom cause of all this and you'd need more, etc. Was a lot of fun but I was glad when the limits went in.

 

[Ferrio]

Yeh. You actually had to learn your class to run the dungeon, imagine that.

No... it was just too hard period (due to bad design). I know one of the mobs had a bug where their aoe did some insane damage... like 5k tick or something. Stuff was so insane back then. This was in the very very beggining right as people were just hitting 60. Stuff mellowed out by the time dire maul was out, don't remember exactly. But people avoided scholo for the longest time.

 

[SatelliteOfLove]

Dire Maul > Scholo.

One downside on my ally character was that NO ONE wanted to go to the effort to do DM, they wanted to grab-ass in that shithole instead. I personally carnival barked and led three different groups thru each wing (supplying the mats for King Run), teaching random schmucks the fine art of The Dire Maul. They loved it having beaten it.

No... it was just too hard period (due to bad design). I know one of the mobs had a bug where their aoe did some insane damage... like 5k tick or something. Stuff was so insane back then. This was in the very very beggining right as people were just hitting 60. Stuff mellowed out by the time dire maul was out, don't remember exactly. But people avoided scholo for the longest time.

That taught "get yo ass out of the bad stuff or eat a repair bill". My real beef was the cheek-to-jowl mobs for 6 fucking rooms before you caught wind of a boss. Well, that, and those Steve Young casters in the third room that would drop back to cast every time.

It was interesting because both were totally doable as 5 man instances (hard and long of course still, later nerfs were welcome) but the gap between the norm and the theoretically possible in groups was MUCH larger back then. Even good players were probably as bad or worse than your average pugger is now. Tanking was a mysterious function that nobody really understood, making aggro awful so you'd bring more tanks, nobody knew how to dps so you needed like 2-3 times as many to handle things in time, healers would oom cause of all this and you'd need more, etc. Was a lot of fun but I was glad when the limits went in.

I disagree, and I feel you are arguing successfully that players are more LEARNED, but due to churn meaning many vets have left, and the near-mandatory creative multi-tasking from less Über characters one had to make do with being redundant, skill remains very similar. I remember a hunter buddy of mine aggro-juggling with Disctracting shot off my healing while trapping another, all while we both healed his OTing pet, WHILE the group blew up one, then moved the tanking spot to avoid a pat, then back again in case a CC went south and one went for me.

 

[Ferrio]

That taught "get yo ass out of the bad stuff or eat a repair bill".

Small ass rooms, with lots of mobs, and lag from the spell effect even showing up made that a big big pain. Seriously fuck that place. Even when it was mellowed out, it still held a stigma for me. People were much more interested in UBRS anyways.

Yes people were plenty stupid back then (and I agree, the average player nowadays is way better than what we were back then). Of course back then we were like cavemen banging two rocks together. Which not surprising seeing that the only tools blizzard gave us were rocks.

 

[Suairyu]

Yesterday was a good day. Allow me to give some impressions. This is a tale of two halves.

So at level 16, I didn't want my Paladin to level any further, so I decided to roll an alt to pass the time until my IRL and new-found GAF friends could dungeon. I made a female (is there any other kind?) Blood Elf Mage, as the tale of the Blood Elves is an intriguing one. I was able to get her to level 9, here are my impressions:

- The starting area is of a much higher quality than the previous baseline that I saw in the Human and Undead paths. This is natural, of course, due to it being from the expansion, not original release. A focus on warm colours and rounded architecture with crisp texture-work and haunting ambiance. It wasn't quite as good as the Troll starting area presentation-wise, though, but that place was exceptionally gorgeous.

- Despite the improved visuals, the quests seemed like a step back. Of course, all the starting areas have the "kill 10 of these, collect 8 of these by killing more of these" etc. Yet for some reason, the Blood Elf quests felt atrociously blunt about their nature. The lay of the land and the flavour text seemed one simply to facilitate these mundane tasks, rather than giving the illusion of being actually inhabited places.

- Being a mage is much more instantly satisfying than being a Shaman. The fire spell feels quick and powerful and the arcane missiles random spell made me feel like walking Death, even at such a low level.

- The Academy area was a nicely designed building. Feeling almost like a miniature dungeon of its own, the multi-tiered design and pacing provided a good dose of early-level epicness (real word, I tell you!) that was missing from the Human and Undead campaigns. Of course, it didn't quite compare to the showdown with the Naga in the Troll path, but it does its job nicely.

- The ruins of Silvermoon drip with atmosphere. It feels like you're entering a once-proud city, now a dangerous well of beasts. Blizzard Art(tm) triumphant.

- Except for NPCs, male Blood Elves do not exist. This is fact.

That was my brief Blood Elf sojourn. It'll be a pleasant enough alt to play, though I do question how fiercely it will grip my attention when I have a main to play. The Undead path has been the only one to have any longevity of raw interest to its quest chains.

Around 2300 I received a PM from our very own -bakalhau-, asking me to jump online. I did and he proceeded to take me to Ragefire Chasm, the "noobest of the dungeons" so that I might learn my tanking craft.

And I genuinely did. Mob groups were smaller in size and I was able to focus on tab-switching between each individual enemy to keep threat on each. I attempted to drop skulls on the enemies I wanted taking down first but I found the process very fiddly, having to right click the enemy portrait then navigate a menu system to arrive at the skull. Is there a shortcut to drop one?

- Where you're meant to go can be confusing. Frequently the path branches and people shouted "wrong way tank" or similar. Honestly, I couldn't tell what the difference was between the path choices. Perhaps some held access to optional content that people typically didn't care about? Either way, the general rule of thumb was everyone knew the map inside-out except for me. No worries, as I'm the one setting the pace so I can afford to do a quick "which way" from time to time.

- Except, of course, when you have some asshole damage dealer always sprinting ahead like a blind motherfucker who smells mature fish. I have the Divine Shield ability that is a ranged attack which bounces amongst a small cluster of enemies. It's a very efficient way of pulling a group of mobs and instantly having all the aggro directed at me and also acts as a quick top-up for every monster's individual threat meter if the fight is going on for a while. Its only downside is the long recharge time, so often I might wish to pause just before a mob group so I can pull all of them at once.

Then this flyboy runs ahead, pulls all of them and I in a panic have to direct attacks at each one as quickly as possible to keep everyone else safe. And on more than one occasion, he ran ahead to grab another group of mobs. I actually thought he was trolling at first. What a dick. On -bakalhau-'s advice, I just held back whenever he did that in future, letting the mobs kill him before going in to pull aggro for myself.

- Ragefire Chasm's boss made me go "is that it?". It was dead in seconds. Apparently there's also another, optional boss, but no-one wanted to do it. This is where the dungeon system's greatest problem comes into play - there is no ending. You either know you've reached the end and quit, or presumably wander around for ages, finding nothing to do, then quit anyway. A portal appearing or similar would be all that was needed.

After Ragefire, -bakalhau- suggested we do Shadowfang Keep, the conclusion to the Worgen/Undead quest chain. I got a lore boner at the mere mention of the possibility and we dived right in.

- Lore delivers. It doesn't add anything truly essential, but acts instead as a really nice coda to the conflict and caps off two character arcs. Blizzard really, really need to let players more aware of when these dungeons are available - I completely missed it during my Undead experiment and would have loved to have done it there and then.

- By now I had a much better handle on what to do as a tank. Don't get me wrong, I wasn't amazing, but the amount of mobs that escaped my aggro pull was significantly reduced. Still need to practice some more, but I've got the basics down.

- -bakalhau- was amazing, he really was. He told me what loot I should need or greed, and on one occasion when I had greeded before reading his advice he needed it so he could give it to me. He was always giving me advice and did a fantastic job as healer. Everyone play with him - you'll have a really good time.

- There was another damage-dealing flyboy here, but after realising -bakalhau- wouldn't heal him if he ran ahead he stayed in line. A druid was in bear form at one point and made it hard for me to keep threat, but it was a minor hickup. The entire group seemed accepting of the fact I was new to this and offered words of encouragement and advice.

- Crowley was an awesome boss. It took us two attempts and he was a crash course in area-of-effect and cone-damage spells for me with his pistols. Finally defeating him felt like a huge achievement.

- Unfortunately, the quest giver glitched so I wasn't able to hand in the quest to complete it. Will have to run the dungeon again to finish it off, but I'm looking forward to that.

 

[TheYanger]

If you go into keybindings, there's a section that has all of the raid symbols.
"Mark Target Skull" and such I believe they're listed as. I bind mine to 7894560. on the numpad, mileage may very but if nothing else a skull is helpful to bind somewhere, just keep in mind you'll need a LOT of hotkeys by 85 on a paladin and the symbols are really something you tend to do pre-pull so they're not mission critical or anything. Sounds like you've got a handle on tanking pretty decently! Learning the layouts of vanilla dungeons is harder, and people that know their way will blow through them fast, BC started the MCDungeon trend as people call it, where they tend to be hallway, boss, hallway, boss, etc. No possibility of getting lost. It's a bit of a shame, but given the nature of how people play the game these days it's probably for the best. Don't forget you can use your map in dungeons as well for a little guidance if nothing else. You'll find the vast majority of pre-BC instances have bosses that just fall over dead, completely melting just like the RFC targamon the hungerer or whatever. MEchanics are decidedly more prevalent since BC. SFK was completely revamped in Cata and that's why it seems so much more intense.

As far as porting out, if you use the dungeon finder you get an eyeball icon on your minimap, you can click on it to just port out of a dungeon anytime. The only time you need to 'run' out is if you physically went to a dungeon. Many have shortcuts at the end as well from the pre-dungeonfinder days.

As far as the blood elf experience goes: Those quests were a big step up over the old vanilla ones at the time! The quests themselves were similar enough, but the flow and amount of backtracking and things you do are actually a lot better than the old versions of all the other areas you've done, scary isn't it?

 

[TriniTrin]

Shameless bump

The question I have for you guys is should I stick with Herbalism/Alchemy, or switch to Mining/Engineering? I've never really done Herb/Alc before so it's nice and new, but engineering always seems so much fun (not done it either). The bonus stamina from mining is good also. However my healing pots/elixers have been quite useful so far!

I have Herbs and mining on my prot warrior for the bonuses they add and to make da money homie! I was never poor while leveling as herbs and minerals are everywhere for the pickin whilst im killin.